Evolution, Diversity, and Conservation of Herpetofauna: Second Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Amphibians and reptiles play a critical role in the evolution of tetrapoda. They exhibit high diversity in their genetics, speciation, morphology, life history traits, and evolutionary functions. These colorful animals have adapted to numerous environments, including extremes such as karst caves and the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. This makes them important models in the study of the genetic mechanisms underlying the speciation, environmental adaptation, and evolution of some important functional traits and phenotypes (e.g., air breathing and amniotic sac development), as well as organ regeneration. Amphibians and reptiles are essential components in numerous ecosystems; however, they are most sensitive to environmental changes (e.g., warming, pollution, and habitat degradation) due to their poor migratory capacity. In recent decades, wild amphibian and reptile populations have declined drastically and a large proportion of these species are threatened with extinction. The species diversity of amphibians and reptiles has been underestimated, and, currently, dozens of new species are being found every year. Given the accelerating changes in the global climate and environment, there is an urgent need to deepen our understanding of the diversity and evolutionary adaptation of these animals and how they respond to environmental changes. Therefore, it is important to develop applicative and integrative approaches to guide the conservation of wild amphibians and reptiles.

Through this Special Issue, we aim to improve our understanding of the diversity, evolution, and environmental adaptation of amphibians and reptiles and to discuss ideas and approaches regarding their conservation in the context of global change. We welcome publications focusing on any aspects of the evolution, diversity, and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. Possible topics include the following:

• Species and functional diversity of amphibians and reptiles on a large scale;
• Inter-population divergences in behavior, physiology, metabolism, and genetics (including metagenomics);
• The genetic mechanisms of important morphological and functional traits;
• Mechanistic analyses of the influence of environmental stresses on the fitness of amphibians and reptiles;
• Environmental adaptation of amphibians and reptiles from the perspective of genomics, metabolomics, and metagenomics;
• Conservation physiology, genomics, metagenomics, and applications.

Prof. Dr. Jianping Jiang
Dr. Bin Wang
Dr. Wei Zhu
Guest Editors

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